I see there are a number of new faces on the IFA pigs committee. They are Tom O’Keeffe from Mitchelstown, Co Cork; Darren Brady from Co Westmeath; Christopher Brady from Cavan, David Tyndall from Co Tipperary, who is back on for a second spell, and John Horan from Co Limerick.

According to one pig producer, the pigs committee now has the youngest average age of all the organisation’s many commodity committees.

A number are in their 20s. This is because pigs are run on a commercial basis with no entitlements or EU direct payments, he claimed.

However, some producers would have been glad of any payment from the EU coffers in 2018.

Market recovery

The same producer is hopeful that pigmeat markets will recover in 2019 as there has been extensive culling in pig herds in China and Russia in recent months.